Tori Amos


“The piano has been with me since 1994. She’s a Bösendorfer, a black beauty. I take her and another with me whenever I’m on tour.

Starting in the early 1990s, Tori Amos became one of the first women in the pop business to go onstage with a grand piano, an unusual sight at the time. “It took some nerve to bring the woman-and-piano-thing onstage. It was a battle, a sonic war.”

Tori Amos began studying at the Peabody Institute at age five—the youngest student there—and received classical piano instruction. She made her breakthrough as a solo artist in 1991 and has been in the charts regularly ever since. Characteristic of her music are sentimental songs relating to her personal experiences that intensively depict all the changes in her personal life as well as in society. Her music concentrates on a variety of themes, with recurring motives on feminism, politics and religion. Since her first world tour in 1992, Tori Amos has performed more than 1000 concerts.

The Bösendorfer piano is the constant in her career. “A piano is alive because of all the feelings the men working on it put into it.” Tori Amos has been a Bösendorfer Artist for many years. She insists on referring to her grand piano as “she,” without giving her a particular name. Onstage, she likes to introduce the piano as “this lovely little lady.” “I know that the moment I touched her she became my friend. It’s not just a piano; every Bösendorfer appears to have a sort of understanding. They can speak, they can listen. When you play them, you become an extension of the piano. At least you have this possibility.”